New Delhi, July 19 (IANS) Hollywood actress Angelina Jolie, who fulfilled her dream of playing a secret agent like James Bond with “Salt”, says there is a whole world out there of lovely, sweet women “that you can’t imagine being put in a dangerous situation, but they really are”.
Jolie has gone de-glam for her role as Evelyn Salt, a CIA agent in the film.

Known for her research, the 35-year-old star left no stone unturned for this one either.

“We talked to a lot of women in the CIA. One after the other, they are just these lovely, sweet women that you can’t imagine being put in a dangerous situation, but they really are,” the stunning Jolie, who flies planes and rides bikes in real life, said in an e-mail interaction with the media.

Jolie found that the job takes a toll on the personal lives of women secret agents.

“I talked to a woman. She was a former operative. She said it was such a relief when she left the agency as her whole relationship with her husband changed after years of not being able to communicate anything (to her family), what she did or where she was going. She didn’t realise how much it had kept them apart and how difficult it had been until she had a new life,” added the Academy award winner.

After interacting with real spies, Jolie feels enlightened.

“When we first approached the idea, we thought it was a bit of a fantasy.

But as we got more information, we discovered it was more real than we could have guessed. Truth really is stranger than fiction,” said the actress.

She played an athletic-adventurer in the “Lara Croft” series and a secret assassin in “Mr. & Mrs. Smith”.

“It (’Salt’) is a bit like the ‘Bond’ and ‘Bourne’ (series). I was in a meeting with (Sony Pictures co-chairman) Amy Pascal a few years ago when it came up in conversation that she was getting ready to make one of the new James Bond films. I playfully said, ‘I want to be Bond’. That was our little joke, and then she found this project,” she said.

Jolie, who will be seen jumping from roof tops, locomotives and kicking people, also has a penchant for action.

“I happen to like heights; so we found these moments where I can use that. Because I’m a girl and I’m light on my feet, we naturally went to styles like Muay Thai (a martial art form), which is very long and beautiful.

“Salt fights aggressively in face-to-face combat. In some action movies that I’ve done, there’s been a temptation to make the action nice because I’m female…(In ‘Salt’) my character doesn’t use her sexuality to get anything. It’s the roughest I’ve looked,” she said.

Distributed by Columbia Pictures, the action thriller has been directed by Phillip Noyce, who has teamed up with Jolie again after “The Bone Collector”.

Interestingly, she was not the first choice to play the lead in “Salt”. Tom Cruise had initially signed for the role but dropped out at the last minute. The script was altered for Jolie.

Her future projects include “The Tourist”, “Cleopatra” and a voiceover for Master Tigress in “Kung Fu Panda 2: The Kaboom of Doom”.

Also starring Liev Schreiber and Chiwetel Ejiofor, “Salt” releases worldwide July 23. It will hit the Indian screens in four languages - English, Hindi, Tamil and Telugu.